appearance to the present day, and were reproduced in many parts of the
new cathedral at its rebuilding, and may be seen exquisitely carved by
Grinling Gibbons over the entrance to St. Dunstan's Chapel; but with the
arms of the City it was very different, and, in fact, they do not appear
even now to have reached finality. When, early in the seventeenth
century, the seal of 1380 became too worn for further use, a new one was
made, which reproduced on the obverse all the essential features of the
earlier one, the details being somewhat classicised, the shield in the
base was repeated, and the lions on each side crowned; but the reverse
showed a new departure, of which no record exists in the College of
Arms. This was the addition of a crest, which consisted of a cross set
between two dragons' wings displayed, placed on a peer's helmet. It will
be seen by reference to the example preserved in the British Museum,
taken from a deed of 1670, that the shield, which is placed couchee,
bears the present arms, and is surrounded by a tasselled mantling and a
motto, which reads, "Londini defende tuos deus optime cives" (fig. 3).
No such use of a peer's helmet has ever been officially allowed to any
town or city, and it can only be presumed that as the mayors of London
were always addressed as "My Lord," the assumption of a peer's helmet
might be permitted. But it may be remarked that, at least in recent
years, the helmet is sometimes displaced by a fur cap, the headgear of
the sword-bearer to his lordship, for which there does not appear to be
the shadow of a warranty. For instance, the official invitation card to
the Lord Mayor's Banquet of 1882 has the fur cap hovering in the air
between the shield and the crest, whilst the card of 1896 reproduces the
helmet with its crest and mantling arranged in the earlier fashion.
[Illustration: FIG. 3--THE CITY SEAL IN MDCLXX.]
[Illustration: FIG. 4--THE CITY ARMS, AS PORTRAYED BY WALLIS, IN THE
REIGN OF CHARLES II.]
The crest which shows on this seal of 1670 introduces the dragon for the
first time to the City arms. The association of St. George with the
dragon is, of course, obvious, and this may have suggested its wings as
an appropriate crest to surmount his cross upon the shield, and from
this it was naturally an easy transition to the dragon supporters. They
are not known to occur before they were represented by Wallis in his
_London's Armory_, published in 1677, a work dedicated to Charles II.,
who, in accepting it, said of its author that he "hath with much Pains
and Charge endeavoured to attain a perfect and general collection of the
Arms proper to every Society and Corporation within our City, and hath
at length finished the same in a most exact and curious manner." Whether
this royal imprimatur can be held to override the absence of any grant
from the College of Arms may seem doubtful to many, but the fact
remains--from that day to this, dragons, or some fabulous monsters akin
to them or to griffins, have appeared as the supporters of the City
arms. Another point to notice in Wallis's representation, of which we
give a sketch (fig. 4), is that although he retains the peer's helmet
over the shield, he shows the fur cap, together with the mace, sword and
other official symbols, grouped as ornamental accessories at the base of
his device. The crest also has been modified, and consists of only one
dragon's wing, upon which the cross has been charged, as well as upon
the wings of the supporters, which, if descendants of the original
dragon of St. George, show thereby that they have become "Christen"
beasts.
Such is the history, shortly, of the arms now used by the City of London
to decorate its buildings and seal its documents, and which Wallis,
their inventor, in the true meaning of that word, pronounces correct,
"having by just examinations and curious disquisitions now cleared them
from many gross absurdities contracted by ignorance and continued along
by implicit tradition committed contrary to Art, Nature and Order, and
repugnant to the very principles of Heraldry."
* * * * *
_END OF VOLUME I._
* * * * *
Bemrose & Sons Limited, Printers, Derby and London.